Type of initiative

• Project or service

Case Abstract

Through technology developed by the project partners, EU citizens will get the opportunity to have a closer contact with-and more influence on-their representatives at the European Parliament.

The eCommittee project, part of the EU eParticipation initiative will gather suggestions and questions from citizens and interested organisations from ten EU countries. The questions will address Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) serving on committees looking at climate change and other environmental issues. Beginning now and up until 2010, the project will target six major committee sessions for citizen participation. If MEPs positively respond/react to the citizen input, the pilot scheme could pave the way for a fully functioning system that allows people to have more direct input into all legislation.

In the initial stages, the project team has focused on ensuring  that the technical infrastructure was in place, to move along with the proposed participation. The four main project partners have also appointed national moderators in each of the ten targeted EU Member States. The project will use web-conferencing technology combined with the European Parliament's new video and audio streaming services. Slovenia-based project partner Novitech will look after the technical side of the project, provide online collaborative tools and ensure consistent content service before, during and after committee sessions. The project Steering Committee has been identifying and appointing national moderators and inviting concerned stakeholders from the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Slovakia, Portugal, Slovenia, Sweden and the United Kingdom to participate.

Climate Change legislation expertise is provided by the Belgium-based Climate Action Network, while the Association of Accredited Lobbyists to the European Parliament will handle liaising with MEPs and communicating with the public.

The proposed structure with partners in place enabled environmental non-governmental organisations, business SMEs, labor organisations, climate researchers, student organisations and other bodies interested in climate change to feed their input to their national moderators. Input from individual citizens will also be encouraged. The project planners aim to attract about 200 active citizen participants or an average of ten from each country. The participants will be kept informed of all the relevant news and events relating to climate change and the environment via the project's website, which also features a discussion forum.

If the majority of MEPs on the European Parliament's Environmental Committee and the Temporary Climate Change Committee agree, the sessions the project has chosen to cover will be accessible live via the eCommittee communications architecture. Two master moderators will be present at the committee sessions and will relay questions and comments to the MEPs. Whether this will happen while the MEPs are meeting, or before or after sessions, remains to be decided. It is uncertain how MEPs and the public will react to the new concept. However, if it is a success, then the service could lead to more participation in the pan-European democratic process.